The Doggy Bag: The Unintended Consequences Edition

Cozier Cage Relocations

I am happy the UFC has done such a good job getting the UFC 151
fights rescheduled. I am curious if you think some fighters will
get a boost with the rescheduling now. Takeya
Mizugaki and Yasuhiro
Urushitani are now scheduled to fight in Macau, which is way
closer to Japan than Las Vegas. Jacob
Volkmann is getting to fight in his home state of Minnesota. Do
you think some of these rescheduled fights now have a new spin
because of these factors? -- Aaron from Montana

Tristen
Critchfield, associate editor: With that kind of
glass-half-full mentality, you deserve a job with the UFC’s PR
team. While it is nice to look for silver linings after one of the
darkest days in promotion history, my guess is that the majority of
the fighters who were scheduled to compete at UFC 151 would have
preferred a Sept. 1 payday. Sure, Volkmann’s friends and family in
Minnesota can make it to the Target Center more easily than they
could the Mandalay Bay, but is that really going to have an impact
on the overall gate -- or his check -- in the long run? And
Mizugaki and Urushitani might draw more interest in Macau than in
Vegas, but they also have to survive two extra months of training
without issue.

Twitter painted a broad picture of undercard fighter woes last
Thursday, with many UFC 151 competitors taking to the social medium
to air their grievances with light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
While that was not necessarily fair, it is understandable why they
were upset: training for and traveling to a fight costs money, and
most of these guys needed that paycheck to survive. Some even lost
money as a result of the debacle. Not everyone is so financially
comfortable that they can afford to sit out an event.

For example, Daron
Cruickshank earned $16,000 (including an $8,000 win bonus) for
his triumph over Chris
Tickle at “The Ultimate Fighter 15” Finale in June, while
Henry
Martinez garnered $12,000 (including a $6,000 win bonus) for
beating Bernardo
Magalhaes that same month. Cruickshank and Martinez were
scheduled to square off at UFC 151; now their tussle has been
pushed back to Dec. 8.

Obviously, neither Cruickshank nor Martinez are at the top of the
UFC’s financial food chain, and not only do both men need a steady
income but postponing the fight for so long also likely eliminates
the possibility that either fighter could have gotten an extra bout
in before year’s end. With that in mind, try selling Cruickshank or
Martinez on the merits of competing on a UFC on Fox 5 card three
months after their originally scheduled paydays.

The UFC should certainly be commended for making the effort to
accommodate as many disgruntled employees as it possibly can.
However, not everyone can be so fortunate as Charlie
Brenneman and Kyle Noke,
whose welterweight bout was moved to the next available date: UFC
152 on Sept. 22. As you mentioned, the promotion has done its best
to provide many of those affected by the UFC 151 cancellation with
alternate destinations that are as compelling and desirable as
humanly possible. That said, there is really only one possible
response here, using best fight manager’s voice: “We’re interested
in dollar signs, not storylines.”

Everyone -- whether it be UFC President Dana White, the UFC, the
fight venue or the fighters themselves -- is working toward that
same bottom line. In the meantime, somebody please get Aaron a UFC
job application; the organization can always use a little more
positive spin in times like these.